Sask. RMs offering coyote bounties

Apr 12, 2023

Three municipalities will pay $20 per set of four coyote paws

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Three rural municipalities are offering payments to anyone willing to help reduce the number of coyotes in the community.

The municipalities of Weyburn, Cymri and Estevan will pay $20 per set of four coyote paws.

The early signs of winter may have helped the coyotes establish themselves, said Ray Orb, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.

“That put a lot of pressure on wildlife and some of the other animals that coyotes actually feed on during the winter, so there’s a lot of coyotes around. It seems to me like more than usual,” he said, the Canadian Press reported.

People participating in the bounty program must fill out proper paperwork.

For hunters or trappers in Weyburn and Estevan, the form must include the registered landowner’s name and his or her contact information.

The RM of Cymri advises that the landowner grant permission.

Another potential reason for increased coyote populations is the fall of pelt prices.

In October 2022, Serge Lariviére, a fur market expert with The Trapper, wrote “the reign of high-dollar coyotes has now ended,” while recapping a wild fur auction in North Bay that June. “At this last sale, the very best coyotes, the Western heavy pelt with pale fur, white bellies sold for a $26.95 average, with the top price not even breaking the hundred-dollar mark ($97.00 USD).”

For comparison, in December 2021, Lariviére reported that Western coyotes “of best quality (heavy) averaged $77.13 USD.”

People who participate in the coyote bounty program can hold onto the pelts if they wish.

“We’re just asking for the paws so that if anybody wants to get them and keep the pelts for when prices do rebound … they have that option, and we’re just asking them to take (the paws) to the RM shop, not the RM office,” Norm McFadden, reeve of Weyburn, told CTV News.

Not everyone is in favour of the bounty program.

More emphasis should be placed on farm management practices to keep the animals at a distance.

“There needs to be a far greater focus on prevention and oversight of the animal agriculture sector, ensuring that farms have developed and implemented sound management practices. This includes improved fencing and having waste and attractant management plans in place,” Aaron Hofman, director of advocacy and policy with The Fur-Bearers, and Lesley Sampson, founding executive director of Coyote Watch Canada, wrote in a Saskatoon StarPhoenix guest column.

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